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Phone Makers Could Cut Off Drivers. So Why Don’t They?

Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2016 2:03 pm
by MSI
NY Times Phone Makers Could Cut Off Drivers. So Why Don’t They?
Article includes:
  • a patent filing that Apple made in 2008, which was granted in 2014, for technology that would “lock out” a driver’s phone by using sensors to determine if the phone was moving and in use by a driver. If so, it would prevent certain functions, like texting. In the patent, Apple says such technology is necessary because: “Texting while driving has become so widespread that it is doubtful that law enforcement will have any significant effect on stopping the practice,” and “Teens understand that texting while driving is dangerous, but this is often not enough motivation to end the practice.” It is unclear whether Apple has developed the lockout technology.
  • AT&T commissioned research by an addiction expert who, in an AT&T news release in 2014, said that using a phone sets off releases of a neurochemical called dopamine that makes it hard to resist the ping. “If that desire for a dopamine fix leads us to check our phones while we’re driving, a simple text can turn deadly,” David Greenfield, who founded the Center for Internet and Technology Addiction, said in the AT&T news release.
See the full article